Timing and interventions of emergency teams during the MERIT study

Aims: To examine interventions and timing of emergency team calls in hospitals with or without a medical emergency team (MET). Methods: Interventions were recorded, categorized and classified as critical care interventions (e.g. airway intervention, ventilation and use of inotropic drugs); ward level interventions (e.g. fluids, oxygen by mask); assessment, physical examination and investigations. Results: Only 5 of the 2376 calls were free of critical care interventions. For non-cardiac arrest-related calls, MET hospitals had a lower proportion of airway, circulation and drug-related interventions and a higher proportion of ward level interventions. The majority of calls were between 0601 and 1200h and cardiac arrest survival was greatest in the 1200–2400h period. Overall median time at the scene was 25min. Conclusions: Nearly all emergency team calls required critical care type interventions. Emergency team calls show a unique temporal pattern for both MET and control hospitals. These findings have important organizational and resource-related implications for hospitals evaluating and establishing rapid response systems.Arthas Flabouris, Jack Chen, Ken Hillman, Rinaldo Bellomo, Simon Finfer, The MERIT Study Investigators from the Simpson Centre and the ANZICs Clinical Trials Grou